Hillary's Cell Phone Spying to be Probed

Republicans plan to skewer presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton over her position on government surveillance, capitalizing on allegations in a recent book that Clinton listened to a secretly recorded conversation between political opponents.

In the book “Her Way,” former New York Times investigative reporter Jeff Gerth and Times investigative reporter Don Van Natta Jr. wrote that during Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, “Hillary’s defense activities ranged from the inspirational to the microscopic to the down and dirty.

“She received memos about the status of various press inquiries, she vetted senior campaign aides; and she listened to a secretly recorded audiotape of a phone conversation of Clinton critics plotting their next attack.”

As Newsmax reported in June, "The tape contained discussions of another woman who might surface with allegations about an affair with Bill. Bill's supporters monitored frequencies used by cell phones, and the tape was made during one of those monitoring sessions."

Mickey Kaus at Slate magazine noted: "Isn't [secret phone monitoring] not so legal? … I'm no expert, but it looks like a potential minefield for Hillary.”

Several legal experts told The Hill newspaper that it was illegal to intercept cell phone messages in 1992.

In August, Clinton voted against an emergency law that temporarily expanded the government’s power to conduct surveillance on American soil without a warrant.

A month earlier, she outlined her privacy bill of rights, which includes the right to sue when privacy rules have been violated.

A GOP official told The Hill: “Hillary Clinton’s campaign hypocrisy continues to know no bounds. It is rather unbelievable that Clinton would listen in to conversations being conducted by political opponents, but refuse to allow our intelligence agencies to listen in to conversations being conducted by terrorists as they plot and plan to kill us.

“Team Clinton can expect to see and hear this over and over again over the course of the next year.”